Sakharov assails Soviet policy

By
With Analysis from Monitor Correspondents around the world,
Edited by Ruth Walker /
January 29, 1980

Moscow

In a document delivered from exile by his wife, dissident leader Andrei Sakharov said Monday that his arrest and banishment were the signal for Soviet authorities to "unite their hands" and open a campaign to repression against all Soviet dissidents. Mr. Sakharov, exiled last week to the closed Soviet city of Gorky, said he was innocent of charges of "subversive activities," demanded the right to defend himself, and lashed out at Soviet foreign policy.

"I am ready to go before an open trial and I do not need a golden cage," he said. "I need the right to serve my public duty as my conscience dictates me."

He issued a sweeping denunciation of Soviet foreign policy, which he said had led to the deterioration of international conditions. Among other things, he charged, the Soviet Union has "carried out in Europe a wide demegogical campaign" to strengthen its military advantage and tried "to destroy the possibility of peace in the Middle East and South Africa. . . . The peak of this dangerous policy was the invasion of Afghanistan, where Soviet troops have launched a merciless war against rebels and the Afghan people," he said.